The invention relates to a ball circulation bush with a longitudinal slot, which braces a guiding rail having an at least partially circular cross-section. Several continuous rows of balls are distributed along the cross-section and guided in a cage, and a carrying portion extends parallel to the longitudinal axes of the bush and guiding rail. The balls project from the cage while resting against the guiding rail; a returning portion; and deflecting portions connecting the two at their ends, with the balls in the carrying portion being supported on the bush races.
With such ball bushes it is known to design the outer carrying races on which the balls in the carrying portion are supported so that they consist of individual race segments. The balls in one ball row are arranged so that the balls contained in the two portions, i.e. the carrying portion and returning portion, are positioned in a plane extending at right angles relative to the radius with reference to the longitudinal axis of the guiding rail and through the centers of the balls contained in the carrying portion. The individual race segments are accommodated in a carrier.
The disadvantage of this design is that the receiving bore for the ball circulation in the component to be supported has to be produced very accurately in order to achieve the desired conditions of play. Furthermore, the bore has to be such that all ball guiding rows participate in the transmission of load, if at all possible. The divided design has a further disadvantage in that the receiving bush itself cannot accommodate any forces--or it can accommodate forces to a very limited extent only. Furthermore, relative to the forces to be transmitted, the bush is relatively large if a certain number of ball rows is required so that the carrying portions and returning portions are arranged practically on the same diameter.
Other designs have been proposed in the case of which due to the fact that the two portions, i.e. the carrying portion and the returning portion, are arranged in a joint plane, a larger number of carrying rows may be arranged on the cross-section but this arrangement, too, leads to an increase in the diameter.